One Hundred Years of Solitude

74 pages • 2 hours read

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1967

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Introduction

Before Reading

During Reading

After Reading

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

CHAPTERS 1-3

Reading Check

1. Who is the father of Colonel Aureliano Buendía?

2. Who discovers the route to the capitol?

3. What is the plague that Rebeca brings to Macondo?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Melquíades connect Macondo to the outside world?

2. Why does José Arcadio kill Prudencio Aguilar?

3. Who introduces the elder José Arcadio to the daguerreotype? Why does José Arcadio become so interested in this invention?

Paired Resource

“The Solitude of Latin America”

García Márquez’s Nobel lecture discusses the unique history of Latin America.
The topics in this lecture connect to the theme of The Nonlinearity of Time.
How does the history and culture of Latin America inform García Márquez’s fiction?

“Emerging Romani Voices From Latin America”

This 2004 article from the European Roma Rights Centre offers information on the Romani presence in Latin American countries.
The information in this resource connects to the theme of Predictive Omens.
What is the overall role of Romani characters (such as Melquíades) in the novel?

CHAPTERS 4-6

Reading Check

1. In whom does Aureliano confide his feelings for Remedios?

2. Who is Rebeca’s rival in her love for Pietro Crespi?

3. How does Rebeca’s engagement to Pietro end?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does José Arcadio destroy his workshop and laboratory? How does his family respond to his actions?

2. Why does Amaranta feel responsible for Remedios’ death?

3. Why does Aureliano leave Macondo?

CHAPTERS 7-10

Reading Check

1. What does Aureliano give his mother after he is captured?

2. Who are the parents of Remedios the Beauty?

3. Who tries to save the life of General Moncada?

4. What does Aureliano do with his final years?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Aureliano decide to end the war? What does he do after the war is over?

2. Why does Úrsula take issue with Aureliano Segundo? How does Aureliano respond?

Paired Resource

“The Thousand Days’ War”

This brief overview introduces the topic of the Thousand Days’ War that raged in Colombia between 1899 and 1902.
This historical information connects to the theme of The Buendía Family.
How does García Márquez depict the Thousand Days’ War in the novel?

CHAPTERS 11-15

Reading Check

1. Who connects Macondo to the railroad?

2. How does Remedios the Beauty disappear?

3. Who is the only survivor of the banana massacre?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Petra leave town?

2. How does Mauricio Babilonia become paralyzed?

Paired Resource

“One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII”

This love poem is by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.
How do the forces of love and desire shape the novel?

CHAPTERS 16-20

Reading Check

1. How long does the rain last?

2. Why does Aureliano Segundo dig under the Buendía house?

3. How does the young Aureliano learn to read?

4. With whom does the young Aureliano begin an affair?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does the young Aureliano occupy himself after Aureliano Segundo dies?

2. How does José Arcadio treat the young Aureliano? Why?

3. How does José Arcadio die?

4. How is Macondo destroyed?

Recommended Next Reads

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

This romantic novel features traits of magical realism for which García Márquez is known.
Shared themes include The Nonlinearity of Time and Predictive Omens.
Shared topics include magical realism and love.
Love in the Time of Cholera on SuperSummary

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

This novel is a family chronicle in the magical realist tradition popularized by García Márquez.
Shared themes include The Nonlinearity of Time and Predictive Omens.
Shared topics include magical realism and Latin American history.
The House of the Spirits on SuperSummary

Reading Questions Answer Key

CHAPTERS 1-3

Reading Check

1. José Arcadio Buendía (Chapter 1)

2. Úrsula Buendía (Chapter 2)

3. Insomnia (Chapter 3)

Short Answer

1. Melquíades is a wandering peddler who regularly visits Macondo with marvels and trinkets from the outside world, thus connecting Macondo with the world from which the town is generally isolated. (Chapter 1)

2. José Arcadio kills Prudencia Aguilar because he makes fun of him for never having sex with his wife. (Chapter 2)

3. Melquíades introduces José Arcadio to the daguerreotype, an early form of photography. José Arcadio becomes obsessed with this invention, becoming convinced that he can use it to prove the existence of God. (Chapter 3)

CHAPTERS 4-6

Reading Check

1. Pilar (Chapter 4)

2. Amaranta (Chapter 4)

3. After Rebeca sleeps with the younger José Arcadio (Chapter 5)

Short Answer

1. José Arcadio begins seeing the ghost of Prudencio and becomes convinced that every day is Monday, and these delusions cause him so much distress that he destroys his workshop and laboratory. His family responds to his deteriorating condition by tying him to a tree. (Chapter 4)

2. When Remedios dies, Amaranta feels responsible for her death because she had been praying desperately for anything to stop Rebeca’s wedding to Pietro. (Chapter 5)

3. Aureliano leaves Macondo after the election to join forces with the revolutionary Victorio Medina during a civil war. (Chapter 5)

CHAPTERS 7-10

Reading Check

1. All the poetry he wrote about Remedios (Chapter 7)

2. Arcadio and Santa Sofía de la Piedad (Chapter 7)

3. Úrsula (Chapter 8)

4. Aureliano makes small golden fish that he sells. (Chapter 10)

Short Answer

1. Aureliano becomes increasingly bored with the war after returning to Macondo and finally asks his friend Colonel Gerineldo Márquez to help him end the war. After signing the armistice, Aureliano attempts to end his life. (Chapter 10)

2. Úrsula scolds Aureliano Segundo for not using his money responsibly, and in response, Aureliano wallpapers her entire house in one-peso bills. (Chapter 10)

CHAPTERS 11-15

Reading Check

1. Aureliano Triste (Chapter 11)

2. Remedios floats into the sky while folding laundry outside. (Chapter 12)

3. José Arcadio Segundo (Chapter 15)

Short Answer

1. Petra leaves town after Aureliano Segundo insists on taking a picture of her dressed as a queen in his wife, Fernanda’s, clothing. This offends her so much that she leaves town. (Chapter 11)

2. Mauricio is shot by a guard while sneaking away from Fernanda’s house, where he was meeting his lover, Meme, in secret. The injury causes him to become paralyzed for the rest of his life. (Chapter 14)

CHAPTERS 16-20

Reading Check

1. Nearly five years (Chapter 16)

2. He wants to find the gold that Úrsula hid. (Chapter 16)

3. José Arcadio Segundo teaches him. (Chapter 17)

4. His aunt Amaranta Úrsula (Chapter 19)

Short Answer

1. The young Aureliano spends most of his time in Melquíades’s workshop trying to decipher his writings. (Chapter 18)

2. José Arcadio largely ignores the young Aureliano because he is a “bastard.” (Chapter 18)

3. Two of the teenagers invited to spend the evening with José Arcadio drown him in the bath and steal his gold. (Chapter 18)

4. Macondo is destroyed by a powerful windstorm that tears the houses from their foundations. (Chapter 20)

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